LBreakout2 Manual

maintained by Michael Speck
last change: 02/02/17

Table Of Contents

Game Play

Basics

Okay, I guess all of you know how to play breakout basically. Ball bounces around --> paddle keeps ball in game -> all bricks destroyed --> next level ;-D
The chosen difficulty level (see Options) has some influence on paddle, ball and score. The harder the smaller is the paddle, the faster move the balls, the less lives you have and the more costs a continue but you'll earn a bonus of 20% (medium) or 40% (hard) score when the game's over.
If there is more than one player the next player will get his/her chance when the current one restarts the level or looses all balls. The name of the current/next player is displayed in the right top corner of the screen and before each turn.

Bonus/Malus

A destroyed brick may release a bonus or malus which will move down slowly. It's used as soon as it is collected by paddle.
NameTime (in sec)PictureDescription
Extra Score-Gives you the score written on it.
End Of The Rainbow20If you destroy a brick with no bonus assigned it will release 1000 points extra score!
Expand Paddle-Expands your paddle about one tile (the maxium size depends on the chosen difficulty level).
Extra Life-Gives you one extra life (paddle).
Sticky Paddle20Balls touching the paddle will keep attached until you press fire.
Energy Balls10Balls won't be reflected at a brick but go directly through it.
Extra Ball-Creates a new ball.
Bonus floor20Closes the screen so no balls can get lost.
Weapon10Adds a weapon to the paddle.
Speed Down20Deccelerates all balls to mimum speed.
Joker-Collects all bonus on screen instantly and destroys all malus. Doubles score and time of the collected bonus!
Explosive Balls10When hitting a brick balls will cause an explosion destroying all surounding bricks.
Bonus Magnet20While this bonus is active the paddle will attract other bonuses.
Reset-All active bonuses and maluses will be reset.
Time-Add-All active bonuses and maluses will last seven seconds longer.
Random Extra-Gives you any of the listed extras.
Speed Up20Accelerates all balls to maximum speed.
Frozen Paddle1Freezes the paddle (no movement possible).
Shrink Paddle-Shrinks your paddle about one paddle tile (18 pixels).
Lights Out!20Total darkness. All you see is a shade of paddle, balls and extras.
Chaos20Balls are reflected randomly at bricks. (but not at paddle)
Ghostly Paddle20Paddle disappears when not moving and won't reflect any balls then. (nor does it collect bonuses)
Malus Magnet20While this malus is active the paddle will attract other maluses.
Weak Balls20With this malus active there is a 40% chance that a ball won't damage a brick.

Special Bricks

NamePictureDescription
Shielded BrickThis brick is indestructible even for energy balls.
Metal BrickThis wall is indestructible except for energy balls.
Chaotic BrickSimiliar to the Chaos Malus the ball is reflected randomly at such a brick.
Strong BrickThese walls take up to three shots before destruction and grow darker with every hit. NOTE: to this series belongs a forth brick which is invisbile.
Regenerating BrickThis brick will regenerate one point durability within four seconds if not hit again.
Explosive BrickThis bricks destroys its neighbors on destruction.
Growing BrickIf this brick is destroyed it creates up to 8 new bricks.

Keys

There are some predefined keys for LBreakout:
EscapeQuit LBreakout (after confirmation).
rRestart level. If more than player the next one will get his chancebefore this player may play the restarted level!
pPause game.
fSwitch Fullscreen and Windowed mode.
aChange animation level (off/low/high).
sTurn on/off sound.

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Options

New Game

Options in menu New Game:
Start GameStart game with the specified options.
LevelsetThis is the levelset you actually want to play. LBreakout parses the installation path and ~/.lbreakout/levels for valid levelsets. Levelsets found in the home directory have an '~' in front of the actual name.
DifficultyDifficulty is either easy, medium or hard. See the Basics for more info.
PlayersHow many players? Four at maximum.
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4thNames of the players.

Controls

Options in menu Controls:
Left, Right, FireKeys for paddle movement.
Grab MouseKeep mouse in window? Useful for windowed mode. Grab is turned off when confirming something or having a break.
Relative MotionInvert and motion modifier to only work for this option enabled. But note: enabling this option already slows down the mouse so you'll have to play around with the motion modifier to fit your needs.
Motion ModifierSlows down or speeds up mouse motion.
Invert MotionInvert paddle motion.
InputIs either Keyboard'n'Mouse, Mouse Only or Keyboard Only.

Graphics

Options in menu Graphics:
AnimationsAnimation level. Using no or low animations will increase frame rate a lot.
TransparencyUse transparency effects?
ShadowShadow of frame, bricks, balls, bonus and paddle.
DisplayEither Fullscreen or Window. Is switched directly after changing this option.
Frame RateEither 200 FPS, 100 FPS, 50 FPS or Unlimited. Unlimited is recommended for best performance, but if you got any jobs running you should limit the frame rate to prevent LBreakout from consuming 100% CU time.

Audio

Options in menu Audio:
SoundEnable/disable sound.
SpeechEnable speech samples (might get on your nerves so I added this option).
VolumeSound volume between 1-8.

Advanced Options

Options in menu Advanced Options:
Convex PaddleIf this options is enabled the paddle's surface is treated as convex which simplifies aiming a lot.
If this option is disabled the original paddle physics are used. Influencing the ball's direction does only work with the paddle's hemisphere at each end and friction by paddle movement. Very difficult.
BallsEither Below Bonuses or Above Bonuses. Below Bonuses is default but with lots of bonuses on screen balls may be hard to spot so switch to Above Bonuses then.
Key SpeedThis is the speed with which the paddle moves when using keyboard for input.
Return Balls If a ball does not damage a brick within ten seconds it is allowed to return to the paddle. If this option is set to Auto it will automatically return and if this option is set to By Click you'll have to press the middle mouse button or the 'back'-key (default is Backspace).
Use HintsEnables/disables the quick hint system.
Select ThemeHere you may select another theme for LBreakout2.

Editor

Options in menu Editor:
SetThe set file in your config directory '~/.lbreakout2/levels' you want to edit or delete. If you select '<CREATE SET>' and hit edit you'll be asked for a set name and then this set will be created.
Edit SetEdit (or create) this set.
Delete SetDelete this set.

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Editor

Miscellany

All files you edit are saved to ~/.lbreakout2/levels. This '~' you see in front of the name when choosing levelset for playing is not part of the file name but added afterwards to separate the files in the installation path from the files in the config path (these you may edit).

Editor Layout

editor overview
Actions like quit, save, load, clear, add, insert, remove require a confirmation for safety.
  1. Editable Part
  2. Bricks and Bonus
  3. Information about location of set file and how many levels you already created, which level your currently on and how many levels more you may create. If you marked a level for swap it's displayed there, too.
  4. Click on title to change title of this level.
  5. Click here to change author's name for this level.
  6. Click here to test this level.
  7. Go to first level.
  8. Go to next level.
  9. Go to previous level.
  10. Clear all bricks and bonus in this level.
  11. Swap two levels. On first click the current level will be marked (info displayed in region 3), on second click the current and the marked level will be swapped.
  12. Insert a level at the end (copies title and author of previously last level).
  13. Insert a level at current position (copying current title and author).
  14. Remove current level.
  15. Reload this level set (discards all unsaved changes).
  16. Save this levelset (save all changes).

How To Edit

Very simple. Select a brick or a bonus by left-click (right-click into the section to switch between the brick and the bonus set) from the bottom of the screen (red-yellow selection frame) go to the editable part and left-click. Right click will remove a brick (any brick and its bonus if a brick's selected) or bonus (any bonus without touching the brick if bonus selected). You may move the mouse while having left or right buttom pressed. To parse/add/remove any levels or save/load this set use the buttons as explained above. You may use the cursor keys, too (UP - first level, RIGHT - next level, LEFT - previous level). Pressing ESCAPE leaves the editor after confirmation.

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Themes

Miscellany

If you want to run LBreakout2 with other graphics and sounds you can create a theme which allows you to modify all ingame gfx and sounds. The menu is not themeable (and before you ask: the answer is no ;-). The use of new backgrounds is also allowed. The following list contains all editable graphics and sounds. What you have to do to edit them is explained below.

Editable graphics:
ball.png
bricks.png
explosions.pngnormal explosions
explosions_dark.pngexplosions if darkness malus is active
extras.png
f_frame.pngfont used for score and player name in the right upper corner of the frame
f_game.pngfont used for level credits and confirmation
fr_left.pngleft part of frame
fr_right.pngright part of frame
fr_top.pngtop part of frame
life.pnglife lamps displayed in the left bottom corner of the frame
paddle.png
shine.pnganimation running accross bricks
shot.pngshot of the plasma weapon
weapon.pngweapon displayed on the paddle

Editable sounds:
attach.wavplayed if ball is attached to sticky paddlejoker.wavbonus sound
bonus_magnet.wavbonus soundlooselife.wavplayed if you loose a life
chaos.wavmalus soundmalus_magnet.wavmalus sound
click.wavplayed if key was pressed (e.g. confirmation)metal.wavenery ball sound
dammit.wavDammit! speech samplereflect.wavball reflection sound
damn.wavDamn! speech samplescore.wavbonus sound
darkness.wavmalus soundshot.wavweapon's firing noise
disable.wavmalus soundshrink.wavmalus sound
excellent.wavExcellent! speech samplespeeddown.wavbonus sound
exp.wavbrick explosion soundspeedup.wavmalus sound
expand.wavbonus soundstandard.wavstandard sound for collecting an extra
expl_ball.wavbonus soundtimeadd.wavbonus sound
extraball.wavbonus soundverygood.wavVery Good! speech sample
freeze.wavmalus soundwall.wavbonus sound
gainlife.wavplayed if you got an extralifeweak_ball.wavmalus sound
ghost.wavbonus soundwontgiveup.wavI won't give up! speech sample
goldshower.wavbonus sound 

How To Make A Theme

  1. Create a directory in ~/.lgames/lbreakout2-themes with the name of your theme.
  2. Have a look at the original graphics and sounds located in the gfx and sounds directory in the source path or in /usr/local/share/games/lbreakout2.
  3. Now change a graphic or sound to your liking and save it with the same name to ~/.lgames/lbreakout2-themes.
    Note:
    • You must not change the measurements of a graphic!
    • Do not save it to a subdirectory gfx or sounds but directly to ~/.lgames/lbreakout2-themes/MyTheme!
    • A graphic or sound that can't be found in your theme directory is loaded from the original resources.
    • Handling of backgrounds is special. As long as you do not provide a back0.png file the original backgrounds are used. If you want to use self-made backgrounds you'll have to save them as backindices.png where your first indices must be 0. If this happens LBreakout2 will only use the backgrounds found in your theme directory (six backgrounds at maximum). This means if you only provide one background LBreakout2 will only use this background throughout the game as long as your theme is running.
  4. Run LBreakout2 and select your theme in Advanced Options/Select Theme.
  5. If everything works fine add a README with credits and a description.
  6. Tar.gz your theme directory and send it to kulkanie@gmx.net and I'll add it to the site.
    Please provide the following information (either in the mail or in the README):
    1. Full title
    2. Version number
    3. Your name
    4. Email-address for feedback
    5. Description
    6. A jpg screenshot with your theme in action (press TAB while playing).

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